Violett Ingrid's Birth...

So this is not my birth story but it the story of my beautiful friend Heather and the birth of her even more beautiful daughter. I was so blessed and honored to be able to be part of such a miraculous experience and part of such a huge part of her life!

Thank you Heather!

Pregnancy and birth is the most amazing miracle of God! Every single detail is so perfectly pieced together by our creator. From the way Heather (a now new mom) who had never been through birth before knew exactly what she needed to do when it needed to be done to the way Violett also worked on making her entrance into the world (not as stubborn as expected)

I don’t think there is anyway to put into words the experience of being a part of it all. So I won’t try at this time…. I will leave that feat for my own birth.

The day after Violett was born I was driving to school (my think time) thinking about the amazing experience I had just had, going over the whole day in my mind. Besides the miraculous part of it all and the fact that every time I think about it I cant help but be in awe of and praise God, I also having been thinking a lot about another aspect of the day that I did not expect. Nursing (and the professional kind not the kind that is also called lactation or breastfeeding).

During the time I spent with Heather in the hospital I was very disappointed in the staff…except Nurse Nancy, blessings to her she was amazing. Nancy was Heathers labor nurse and she was incredible. But a lot of the other nurses that day I was not impressed with. The hospital is not the most enjoyable place and I feel that the staff can make it a pleasurable stay or an unpleasant one. Two nurses stick out in my mind- One who was a pediatric nurse and gave Violett her bath and so on. She was wonderful as far as getting what she was supposed to be doing done BUT she was very curt and I do not believe she learned the skill of discretion very well…and the other who was the first Nurse that Heather and Violett experienced when they were moved into the “Mother Baby Unit” was put simply a crab. It was the end of her shift and apparently she had had a bad day…. that is fine but I do not think it should follow you into a patients room, especially one that just went through labor and birthed a child. And actually any patient who ends up in the hospital is worse off that day than your day. Nursing should be about the patient and for these two nurses on this particular day it clearly wasn’t.

I have been struggling with I am in nursing and why I have chosen to do what I am doing and these two nurses made me think about this even more.

I want my nursing career to me more than a job that pays my bills. I want to it to be about each and every patient I interact with. I want to be the nurse that makes the worst day of someone’s life just a little bit better

And so why am I doing what I am doing?

I am learning the skills of a nurse in order to serve and add to the medical field at least one nurse who genuinely cares and is not just one who is experiencing another day on the job.

Enjoy where you’re at because you may never be there again….

I am so happy with where I am at right now. I mean yes it would be easier if I was done with school already and so on. But really as hard as school is at times and as hard as life can be on some days I am extremely happy with where I am at. I was thinking today that I really wish I had taken time to enjoy where I was at in life before now. I have learned to enjoy where I am at now (not daily necessarily I still have bad days but as a whole) and I wish I had learned it earlier on. Circumstance may not always be perfect but we must enjoy where we are at in life because we may never be there again. I have a friend ( I will not mention any names, she will know who she is J ) and she has said on multiple occasions that she is jealous of where I am at. I understand what she is saying as my life is exactly what I want it to be and a lot of people don’t get or have that, but I also want to shake her (love you). I wish I could go back and enjoy and be blissfully happy where she is at all over again. I didn’t appreciate my dorm life or the girls who were apart of it enough. I miss them all so much and I wish that I had taken time to enjoy every minute of it and not just the really great ones. Even highschool ( as much as I never would ever want to go back to that stage of my life) I wish I had taken time to enjoy more…not sweat the small stuff and have fun. My whole engagement to my wonderful husband….that is such a stressful time and I wish I had just had more fun and enjoyed the last months we had together as just daters and not old married people J Dating. Now that I wish I could go back to (just dating Evan of course), I wish I could go back and savor every minute so I could remember it better now.

All that said I am glad I am realizing this now because maybe just maybe I will have learned enough by now to enjoy every minute of this next phase of my life—nursing school, motherhood, and the continued wifehood. I hope that I savor every minute of these things (mostly motherhood) so that I can remember every detail and remember how much I enjoyed it instead of wishing I had taken the time to enjoy it more.

So a lesson to all - specifically you who are jealous of where I am at in life----Enjoy where you are at because you may never be there again.

On another note….

I am addicted to pickles at this particular time. I can’t get enough. Actually typing and thinking about them is currently making me think I need one.

I felt this little miracle move (for sure) last Saturday, I can’t wait until I can feel it more consistently!

I have less than 4 weeks left until this semester is over!

I usually love cooking but currently hate it, mostly because nothing appeals to me besides pickles so therefore I can’t think of what to cook……my poor Husband.

Our ultrasound is scheduled for May 11^th I think that is really far away and I might sneak into the free clinic and find out what gender this little one is before then, if Evan can get away from work.

I am pretty sure Roxi barked earlier and the baby jumped and now is quite active.

I think that’s all for now. Love you all!

A picture from the past for fun!

Crazy Spring!

So I was hoping to update this every week but with school I am having a heck of a time doing so! I apologize! Maybe when school gets out I will actually do so!

School: Crazy. I am ready to finish up this semester but enjoying it while it lasts...I gave my first injection! Insulin shot...I was sooo nervous but it was fine. What else??? I really need to buckle down on my schoolwork a bit more. I did not do as well as I would have liked to on my last two exams but the next ones I will do better!!!!

Evan: He is working like crazy and comes home dirty dirty dirty everyday as he is working under a house (trying to figure out a new laundry system now). He is working long days but loving it of course!

Baby, baby, baby: Nothing new really. We will be 4 months along on Monday...its crazy how time flies! Our next appointment is on the 5th of April and we will get to make our ultrasound appointment then! I am still trying to decide if I am feeling the little one moving yet and I will let you know when I decide on it being a yes.

Living: We are trying to figure out where we are going to be in September when the baby comes, we need to get out of the trailer but right now it is just a matter of when and where so please be praying that we figure out what to do and where to be as well as what is best for us at this time.

Photo: So I posted some photos and they are of I and my wonderful and beautiful friend Heather who is due to have her little girl April 21st. I am blessed to have been asked to be there when she gives birth and am so excited to be able to be a part of such a huge and amazing part of her life. It is also really fun that we are having our first babies in the same year!!!

Love you all!

12 weeks and counting....

So sorry I did not get a post exactly at 12 weeks, this lat week has been crazy!

Evan has been really busy with work :) and I had a busy school week. I had my first in hospital clinical experience with care of a patient! I gave medications for the first time and was able to watch a heart cath being done which was super neat!

Entering into week 13th I have had so much more energy which is soooo nice and helpful!

We have our next appointment a week from today and I can't wait to hear the fast little heartbeat again! In the last week my belly has seemed to pop out of nowhere...so for all to see here is a photo...

So there it is!

Miss and love you all so much!

times a changin'

I learned in life, especially during my time in Mercy Ships, that not much ever goes as planned. New plans then arise and you go from there. This new adventure that Evan and are about to be on is another reassurance that my “plans” are just that my own--- sometimes selfish and so simple. My plans are made to be changed by life, circumstance, blessings, and struggles. All that said our plans have been changed by a little blessing that is on its way…Yes we are pregnant!!!

Today the 11^th of February I am currently 9 weeks and 3 days

The little one is due to arrive on or most likely around the 13^th of September.

We are very excited and got to hear a little heartbeat on Monday which was SO very exciting!

I have been very lucky to not experience morning sickness too terribly. Just tired mostly and a little bit of nausea.

Love and miss you and all and I will try and post a picture of a bump when the time comes!

Great White Hunter/ Shero.....

So on Monday November 9, 2009 I “got” my first buck. Evan begged me to go out hunting with him (he has been going out as many mornings and evenings as he can) I reluctantly gave in and then scrounged around to find my “camo” type attire.

We climbed up into the stand after walking for what seemed like forever. The whole time we were walking to the stand I was listening to my own labored breathing and thinking to myself “Wow, I really need to start exercising!” The minutes in the stand were excruciating, both of us sitting in a four foot area was not the most comfortable to say the least. I had a harder time than I thought I would sitting still! Evan had allowed me to bring a book (which I had to camouflage) so that kept me occupied for a while. I kept looking up from my book at every sound hoping I would see something; pretty soon I was looking up so often I gave up on reading.

Evan had told me that there was a squirrel that lived in a tree near where the stand is located and that every time he has gone out there he had thought he heard a deer in the trees when in fact he would realize it was just the stupid squirrel making all the ruckus. So every noise I was hearing I was writing off as being the squirrel, of course only after I got excited thinking it was a deer. Once again I looked up after I heard something in the trees moving around, but this time I thought I saw something moving as well as hearing it. I leaned over to Evan and whispered very quietly “Is that the squirrel?” He told me it was and went back to looking at craigslist on his iphone. I looked back over into the woods and I saw a head!!! It was not a squirrel but a deer! I proceeded to smack Evan’s leg ever so quietly like any wife would do…

We saw the buck rubbing its antlers on the tree branches. Evan was trying to make me stand up and turn so I could grab the gun, I tried to tell him that he could just do it, I did not need to ---but he would not give into that. The buck was probably 60 yards away and I slowly took the gun ( an AR-15) and was aiming through the scope. Everyone said I would be shaking because I would be so nervous, my arm did start shaking but not from nervousness rather because the gun was SO heavy in my scrawny little arms. I could not keep it steady enough to take a shot and I was whining about how heavy it was. Evan told me to steady it up against the tree we were in. I did so and then I was able to steady the gun and stop the aching in my arm. At this point Evan made some call and the buck turned and looked towards us (I thought he was looking straight at me). I took the shot “free hand” with the tree holding some of the weight J

I looked up afterwards and then looked back at Evan and said, “Where did it go?” I thought it had run off before I had shot (I must have closed my eyes after I took the shot). Evan laughed and pointed down on the ground, I had “dropped him” my first shot and had hit him where I had aimed too (apparently I am a good shot J).

I don’t think I have seen Evan so giddy. He had a smile a mile wide. I was super-hero wife for a night.

We stayed in the stand for a while to see if any more deer would show up, we ended up seeing six more deer that night. While we were in the stand a doe and her two “yearlings from last year” walked all around the tree and we just watched them for a long time (I could not get a picture because it was too dark by then). We finally got down from the stand and walked back to get the truck and on the way Evan again was singing my praises and I said to him “You had better be this excited when I graduate from college!”

I will say I did not cry when I killed a living animal (I did tear up). And after I shot I was shaking like crazy. The adrenaline was surely flowing. Although the time sitting in the stand was not the most exciting it was worth the sitting and shooting to see Evan’s face afterwards!

A few facts for those of you who know what it all means:

-Spread 17 inches

-7 point

-And I did try and help with the skinning. (unfortunately I was too slow

and Evan and his friend David took over)

* ( ) – is my commentary

“ “ -- is hunting lingo I have learned in the process

Here are the pictures (I kept the others out for those of you with weak stomachs!):

finally.....

I got my letter from UT Tyler Nursing

and I am in!

I have start now registering for classes and such. I was getting so antsy am I am glad to finally know what I am doing next semester!